I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 42-44.

    The remnant left in Judah after Gedaliah, the governor appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar, was killed went to Jeremiah to ask God what they should do. They swore that they would do what God told them to do through Jeremiah. After ten days, Jeremiah received an answer from God, so he called the remnant to him for the answer. The answer from God which Jeremiah gave them was that they should stay in Judah. Additionally, Jeremiah prophesied to them the bad things which would happen to them if they did not obey God and went to Egypt anyway. Further, Jeremiah told them that he knew they were not going to listen to what God had said. And indeed, Jeremiah was correct, they did not do as God had said. The people, or at least their leaders, did not like the answer Jeremiah gave them. Looking at their response, one wonders why they went to Jeremiah in the first place. There is an important lesson for us in this. When we know what God wants us to do, we need to trust Him and do it, even when we are afraid of the consequences. The results of doing what God wants us to do will always be better than the consequences of doing something else instead.

    Once the remnant arrived in Egypt, Jeremiah confronted them over their continued idolatrous practices. The people responded that they were going to continue these idolatrous practices because they, and their ancestors, had always followed these practices, besides which when they had practiced them in Judah they had been prosperous. It is interesting to note that they first said that they had always done these things, then they tried to claim that trouble only came upon them when they stopped doing them. They changed their story in the middle because they realized that Jeremiah had been among those who had told them troubles were going to come upon them because of these idolatrous practices, so they tried to claim that the troubles came about because they had listened to him. This too is human nature. We frequently repent of our sins too late to avoid their consequences, then we blame the consequences of our sins on the fact that we stopped practicing them.